By Jose Kavi
New Delhi, April 7, 2022: A Catholic nun working among the poor, especially Dalits, has expressed shock at the exposure of an infant selling racket in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.
Poverty alone is not the reason for the “rather unfortunate” racket, asserts Sister Manju Devarapalli, secretary of the National Dalit Christian Watch (NDCW).
The Carmelite Missionaries nun was responding to an April 6 report in the Hindu newspaper about poverty-hit mothers selling infants in Andhra Pradesh.
In two cases reported in Eluru and Mangalagiri in the first week of April, women stated that their family members had sold babies unable to care for them.
“Earlier, we have seen cases of childless couples resorting to illegal adoptions and purchasing babies. But now infants are put up for sale in the market by some gangs in the state. This is pathetic,” the report quoted a child protection officer as saying.
Sister Devarapalli, who is also a lawyer-activist based in Vijayawada, a major city in Andhra Pradesh, says the government and agencies should study the problem thoroughly and find ways to end it.
The report could only be “the tip of” a rampant malaise prevalent across India, not just in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states, she told Matters India April 7.
The nun wants the government to undertake a proper probe into the problem and enact appropriate laws to curb the sale of babies.
The Catholic nun regrets a government move to suppress adoption centers and orphanages, especially managed by Christians, by canceling their licenses and accounts to receive donations from overseas.
The Hindu report said a three-day-old baby boy was sold at a private hospital in Aswaraopet, a village on the Andhra Pradesh-Telangana border.
A was at the center of the racket. The baby’s father and grandmother reportedly sold the newborn to a Registered Medical Practitioner for 200,000 rupees. The baby was then sold to a Visakhapatnam couple for 300,000 rupees. The infant was eventually sold to an Anakapalli couple for 500,000 rupees.
District Child Protection Officer, Eluru, Surya Chakraveni said the baby’s mother stated that the medical practitioner had convinced her to get admitted to a nursing home for delivery, from where the baby was taken.
The Aswaraopet police reportedly registered a case on April 6.
In another case at Mangalagiri in Guntur district, a laborer, Medabalimi Manoj, sold his two-month-old third daughter to a woman in Nalgonda district in Telangana for 70,000 rupees.
The woman then reportedly sold the baby for 120,000 rupees. She was then old to someone in Hyderabad for 187,000 rupees. Again the infant was sold to someone in Vijayawada for 200,000 rupees. The child was then sold to a native of Gollapudi in Vijayawada for 220,000 rupees. In the final deal, the baby was sold for 250,000 rupees.
Police have reportedly arrested 11 persons in the case.
“The baby was shifted to Nalgonda, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam and Eluru. The price went up at every transaction,” an investigation officer stated.
Another baby girl, aged two months, was sold for 60,000 rupees in Eluru two months ago. On a tip-off, Women Development and Child Welfare officials rescued the baby and shifted her to Sishu Gruha, Eluru.
In another case, a woman has alleged that a couple purchased her daughter for 100,000 rupees. The district collector has ordered an enquiry into the issue.
The Bhimavaram police have registered a case when a newborn baby boy was sold for 30,000 rupees by a couple from Hyderabad. Neighbors who heard the baby crying alerted the child welfare officials and the police.
Andhra Pradesh State Adoption Resource Agency governing body member P. Francis Thambi said ayahs, sweepers, baby caretakers and security guards in hospitals as well as registered medical practitioners and domestic helpers play key roles in the ‘infant sale’ racket.
“The ayahs and caretakers will inquire about the financial condition of the family. After convincing the parents for sale, they will alert the mediators, who will pass the information on to racketeers,” the Hindu quoted Francis as saying.
Former member of the Andhra Pradesh State Commission for Protection of Child Rights V. Gandhi Babu appealed to the government to appoint a body responsible to prevent such incidents with immediate effect.